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SATA then IDE?

D

deadman_uk

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 30, 2003
Messages
2,036
I bought a Maxtor SATA150 i think it is (i am useless with hardware) 160gb hard drive the other day. Since I am useless wit installing hardware into my machine, i got my mums boyfriend to do it (he is no expert either). He couldnt put it in as he said he didnt have the right connection lead or something.

So he took it back to the shop and they gave him a western digital 160gb IDE harddrive for the same price.

What is the difference between IDE and SATA? why couldnt he fit the SATA hard drive? my motherboard is in my sig and it says in the mobo manual that it supports SATA hard drives.
 
SATA is essentially a serial version of ATA. That is, bits are sent one after the other on one or some small number of wires in a cable, rather than as entire 16-bit words over 16 wires.

Sending 16 bits at once may sound faster, but you run into all sorts of interference & crosstalk issues when speeds get high enough, and serial becomes the communications method of choice.

Now, onto your board. According to this, there should be two SATA connectors on your motherboard, next a a chip made by Promise.

From a short bit of research on Google, it appears that there were three versions of your motherboard released, and one does not have SATA (which is why Asus lists it as "optional" on their site). Is it possible you have that version?
 
From the perspective of the person installing the hardware, the only difference between "IDE" (I assume you mean Parallel ATA, or PATA for short) and Serial ATA (SATA) is that the former uses the familiar grey (40/80-conductor) ribbon cable and the latter thin (usually red) cables with only a couple of wires inside. The power connector is also different, with PATA using the standard 4-pin Molex connector, and SATA a bigger one, which also supplies the connected drive with +3.3 V. Some SATA drives use the PATA-style power connector, however.
 
Honestly, if you and your mom's boyfriend aren't good enough with hardware to read the manual for instructions, it's probably better you stuck with the PATA drive. It won't be much o a performance difference at all.
 
If you can't install a hard drive - I suggest you don't even open the case.

There is really no excuse. Either read the manual or do a search on Google.
 
Most likely there was not a SATA cable hanging around in the case. The guy not knowing that hard drives had anything other than the PATA flat grey cables would have made the statement that the drive couldn't be connected. Similar issue if the power supply didn't have a SATA connector.

The original poster and the guy installing did a good thing by exchanging the drive. The shop might have worked out what the problem was and sold a SATA cable and/or power plug adapter but doing the exchange was cool, especially if an opened product.

There is a lot to be said for people recognizing something that they are not familiar with, then actually stopping and relooking the problem instead of breaking it. Not everything can be fixed with a Dremel.
 
dude SATA drives are something like twice the price of their IDE equivalents. you got royally screwed.
 
Around here, they're not DOUBLE the price, but they do range about 8% more expensive, or thereabouts.

I would say that you should have gotten it a bit cheaper, but. . .since the drive you returned was opened, and there could possibly be a store "restocking fee". . .It's probably not that bad of a deal.

And from what I've heard, Maxtor (which I usually love, btw) still uses a ATA-SATA adapter within their HDDs. . ? Wheareas WD, and some others are actually SATA all the way through?

Meaning that w/ that hard drive, you prolly woudln't have noticed much of a performance increase.

IF you look at your mainboard manual, you should have a diagram that would show where your SATA connectors would be, then you could visually see them on the mainboard itself. .theyr'e usually even labelled as SATA on the board. May be small print, but you'd see it. ..and if they're NOT there. . the print is usually still there, where they SHOULD be. .with solderpoints, etc. .
 
Originally posted by kronchev
dude SATA drives are something like twice the price of their IDE equivalents. you got royally screwed.
Click to expand...
I don't know what prices you're looking at, but usually they are only 5 - 10% more.
 
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